Hessam KHALATBARI & Yassi METGHALCHI ont le plaisir de vous convier au vernissage de l’exposition JEUDI 6 FÉVRIER 2020 À PARTIR DE 18H00 BIJAN SAFFARI I REZA LAVASSANI I GOLNAZ FATHI I REZA DERAKHSHANI PARVIZ TANAVOLI I SHAHRIAR AHMADI I MOHSEN AHMADVAND I LEYLY MATINE-DAFTARY I FEREYDOON OMIDI I SAMIRA ALIKHANZADEH FARNAZ RABIEIJAH I MORTEZA SHABANI I BAHMAN DADKHAH 216 rue Saint Martin 75003 Paris, France T. +33 1 42 71 87 83 - [email protected] www.galerienicolasflamel.com PREFACE Sincere congratulations to Hessam Khalatbari and Yassi Metghalchi for curating this remarkable exhibition of modern and contemporary visual art of Iran. For their relentless efforts in these testing times, they deserve applause and appreciation. I am neither a curator nor a significant collector. My association with the arts of Iran goes back to my long engagement with the Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF). The IHF organised the first comprehensive exhibition of modern and contemporary Iranian art in Britain, curated by the formidable Rose Issa, at the Barbican in 2001. Many exhibitions, festivals and endeavours have since followed. IN LOVING MEMORY Artists, academics, intellectuals and the creative community have been the torch bearers who have preserved the heritage and culture of Iran throughout OF BIJAN SAFARI... millennia; for that they deserve acknowledgement and wholehearted support. The works which appear in the ‘’Atlas of my Dreams’’ belong to some of the most internationally recognised and accomplished artists of current times. I wish them and the exhibition great success. Maryam Alaghband February 2020 3 4 BIJAN SAFFARI Bijan Saffari (1933-2019) EDUCATION 1953 – 1958 Diploma in Architecture at the École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris. ACTIVITIES From 1959 to 1980 Bijan Saffari returns to Tehran to work as an interior architect; He was a teacher at the Faculty of Decorative Arts, Tehran University; Saffari was exhibited in a number of painting & design group and solo shows. He was a founding Member of the Shiraz Festival of Arts; and managing ‘Kargahe Namayesh’, a centre for experimental theatre. In 1980, he returns to France where he has lived ever since, continuing with his interior architecture projects and adding sculptures to his repertoire of works. Bijan Saffari was a true inspirational mentor and innovator of ideas to many contemporary artists. He was a meticulous draughtsman and his work reveals a great talent for drawing. Objects & Figures depicted in a sensitive manner, nonchalant and making out to be oblivious to the presence of any observers. As he says, ‘Water illuminates, so does watercolour.’ BIJAN SAFFARI, UNTITLED - ACRYLIC ON CANVAS - 116X81 CM - 1993 5 6 REZA LAVASSANI Born in 1962 in Tehran, Iran, Reza Lavassani is known for his oil paintings and sculptures. Lavassani’s works are defined by his very personal visual interpretation of elements he chooses from poetry and mythological fables. In his work, he is particularly careful about the approach to the process of art making and uses his own developed techniques to create some of the most unique and adventurous shapes and forms. Lavassani’s interest in ancient Eastern philosophy, religion and history inspired him to spend years studying literature and mythology; subjects that are central to all that he creates as an artist. His fable-like trees, waves, horses, birds, the four elements of nature and musical instruments, taken from literature and especially Persian poetry, are uniquely his, and even though they don’t resemble reality, they all possess a sense of poetic realness.For Reza Lavassani, art is defined through the ‘process’ of creation. Before work begins on the actual piece, numerous imaginative series of drawing and sketches are done until the final element is born. His large sculptures are themselves valuable art pieces and documents presenting Lavassani’s devotion to craftsmanship. He is also known for his use of traditional methods of art making, techniques of papier-mâché for his sculptures. His works are also his moral strongholds when it comes to him celebrating the cycle of life, a notion that not only ideologically is very precious to him but one that also defines his chosen method in creating art to a great extent. His dedication to use recycled paper as his main tool, is derived from this belief. Lavassani has held several solo exhibitions in Iran and has been part of numerous national and international exhibitions and art fairs. He has been the recipient of several awards including UNESCO’s Noma Concourse in 2007 and 1994 and the first prize of Tehran’s 4th Biennial of Sculpture and 6th Biennial of Illustration. His work has also been included in a number of publications inside and outside Iran in addition to being part of several important private collections. Reza Lavassani received a BA in painting from University of Tehran’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1991. In 2019 Venice Biennal exhibits a large installation of Reza Lavassani at Iran Pavillion. REZA LAVASSANI, BLOWING THE HORN SERIES - PAPIER-MÂCHÉ - 120X80 CM - 2012 7 8 GOLNAZ A trained calligrapher, Fathi has the ability to skillfully transform known FATHI language into form and composition. Having discovered calligraphy while studying graphic design at Tehran’s Azad University, she later left to train at the Calligraphy Association of Iran for six years. As a result Fathi was the first woman to win an award for Ketabat, a distinct genre of calligraphy. She soon tired of the discipline’s rules and regulations and thus created a new form of expression in her paintings: an imaginary language deeply rooted in Persian tradition while simultaneously hinting at a social renaissance. Her paintings carry traces of meaning that have no known coded alphabet. The strength of her work stems from the drive to express emotions that cannot be pinned down into words; Fathi’s works succeed where language fails. She has been the subject of solo shows in New York, Shanghai, London, Beirut, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and Dubai amongst others. Some of these include,Contemplations, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore(2016) khat- Line, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2016), Dance Me to the End of Night, October Gallery, London (2014); Marked: Contemporary Takes on Mark-Making, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York and Hong Kong (2014); The Living Road, Pearl Lam Gallery, Shanghai, China (2013). Fathi has been exhibited nearly 80 of worldwide group shows, including ‘All happens after sunset”, MOCA art pavilion shanghai 2017, Frontier reimagined, Museo di Grimani,Venice biennale 2015, Writing non writing, Museum of Contemporary Art,CAA Hangzhou,China 2015, The Other Half of Iran, Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia (2013); World Stories: Young Voices, Brighton Museum, UK (2012); The Art of Writing, Art Forum of Wiesbaden, Germany (2011); Iran Inside Out, Chelsea Museum, New York (2009) and participated in the International Woman Artists’ Biennial, South Korea (2009). She was also part of Word Into Art exhibition at the British Museum (2006). Fathi received the Young Global Leader Award in 2011. Her works are housed in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, New York; Asian Civilization’s Museum, Singapore; Brighton & Hove Museum, England; The British Museum, London; Carnegie Mellon University, Doha, Qatar; Museum of Islamic Art, Malaysia; Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, India and The Farjam Foundation Dubai. GOLNAZ FATHI, UNTITLED - ACRYLIC ON CANVAS - 170 X 123 CM - 2017 9 10 REZA Painter, musician and performance artist Reza Derakshani was born DERAKHSHANI in Sangsar, in the northeast of Iran. He grew up in a great black tent on the top of a mountain, among horses and fields of blue and yellow wild flowers. Reza moved from the study of constellations of light made by moonlight shining through tiny holes in the tent to the study of mathematics in high school, and visual arts in Tehran and the U.S. The long and circuitous road of Derakshani’s artistic and geographic migration eventually found him in New York City, where he made a home and worked for sixteen years. He later moved to Italy, eventually returning to Tehran for seven years before leaving his troubled homeland once again in 2010. Derakshani currently lives and works between Austin and Dubai. Reza Derakshani’s first solo show at the age of nineteen was held at the renowned Ghandriz Art Gallery in Tehran. Following this auspicious debut, he participated in many group and solo exhibit. His work has been widely exhibited and collected internationally. Derakshani’s passion for beauty and his nuanced perception of the light and dark of the world has found expression in many different forms. Yet it is within contemporary painting that he has experienced true liberation and fulfillment as an artist. The challenging techniques, innovation and mental stimulation inherent to contemporary art have led him to create a meditative solitude that results in pure freedom of self-expression. Reza’s work, known for its diversity and originality, has gained recognition for its fearless exploration of form and style, and the skill and vision necessary to merge an unbending tradition with a wild contemporary spirit. REZA DERAKHSHANI, SHIRAZ CYPRESS - OIL AND GOLD PASTE ON CANVAS - 160X140 CM - 2018-19 11 12 PARVIZ Parviz Tanavoli is one of the most influential and pioneering artists of the Middle TANAVOLI East. He was born in 1937 and lives and works between Iran and Canada. Tanavoli is a founder member of the Saqqakhaneh School (a school of art that derives inspiration from Iranian folk art and culture), described as a ‘spiritual Pop Art’ and is now considered the inspiration for progressive modern Iranian art. Upon graduating from the Brera Academy of Milan in 1959, Tanavoli taught sculpture for three years at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He then returned to Iran and assumed the directorship of the sculpture department at the University of Tehran, a position he held for 18 years.